Memeorandum

June 28, 2016

No New News

The NY Times adopts the tried-and-true Hillary line about "old news" in describing the final House report on Benghazi:

House Benghazi Report Finds No New Evidence of Wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton

That's reassuring for libs, who can find reassurance in the notion that they won't need to close their eyes to anything new, and can keep on ignoring the same old same old.

WASHINGTON — Ending one of the longest, costliest and most bitterly partisan congressional investigations in history, the House Select Committee on Benghazi issued its final report on Tuesday, finding no new evidence of culpability or wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton in the 2012 attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead.

The 800-page report, however, included some new details about the night of the attacks, and the context in which it occurred, and it delivered a broad rebuke of government agencies like the Defense Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department — and the officials who led them — for failing to grasp the acute security risks in the Libyan city, and especially for maintaining outposts in Benghazi that they could not protect.

The committee, led by Representative Trey Gowdy, Republican of South Carolina, also harshly criticized an internal State Department investigation that it said had allowed officials like Mrs. Clinton, then the secretary of state, to effectively choose who would investigate their actions. In addition, it reiterated Republicans’ complaints that the Obama administration had sought to thwart the investigation by withholding witnesses and evidence.

The report, however, did not dispute that United States military forces stationed in Europe could not have reached Benghazi in time to rescue the personnel who died — a central finding of previous inquiries.

Still, it issued stinging criticism of the overall delay in response and the lack of preparedness on the part of the government.

“The assets ultimately deployed by the Defense Department in response to the Benghazi attacks were not positioned to arrive before the final lethal attack,” the committee wrote. “The fact that this is true does not mitigate the question of why the world’s most powerful military was not positioned to respond.”

“What was disturbing from the evidence the Committee found was that at the time of the final lethal attack,” the panel added, “no asset ordered deployed by the Secretary had even left the ground.

Timing is everything. As to how people could have known at the outset of the attack just how long it would go on, obviously Team Obama is staffed with seers and savants.

Comments

Trump should mention every day that Hillary is stalling on talking to the FBI and Comey.
Call her knit like he did with Obama and the birth certificate.
Some in the media don't like her and would probably run with it.
I am asking sincerely .
What do most of the posters here think are Trump's chances of beating Hillary if Comey does not recommend a referral to Justice.Until today I was convinced he would refer.

Maryrose, I think it depends more on the George Will types shutting their pie holes instead of babbling about preferring Hillary to the [insert uniparty coordinated anti-Trump insult of the day] problem they have with Trump.

I agree with you. I have been reading him for a while but lately some of his stuff is questionable, and that thing today was just buncum. I have my Twitter feed on all day and haven't seen much on racism. More about Trump u, the golf course, etc.

Reminds me of when Bush was running and they started the lazy campaigner meme, when all they were doing was refusing to cover his rallies.

I go with RattlerGator. A speech about how he isn't a racist would be a stupid thing to do.

Gowdy said today that Benghazi was never about Hillary. Read the report he told the reporters and interviewers. See for yourself.

Comey is investigating a criminal activity. The FBI does nothing else. Its not about Hillary but whether there was criminal conduct. He can shape that anyway he wants. if 50 agents resign then there is evidence of a sham coverup but if they don't then you have to decide yourself if Comey being appointed the new head of the Clinton Foundation for the Enrichment of All Clintons was somehow compromised.

What do most of the posters here think are Trump's chances of beating Hillary if Comey does not recommend a referral to Justice.Until today I was convinced he would refer.

I've never thought Comey would do the right thing but if Trump continues to give coherent speeches where he forcefully points out Cankles's list of out and out criminal behavior, he will trounce her in the debates and in November.

Just to be clear, Adams' comments have been interesting and at times insightful. But the idea this is all about and depends on rhetoric rather than issues and the vast pool of seething anger over the corruption, theft and malfeasance of our elected and unelected overlords was never plausible.

Reminds me of when Bush was running and they started the lazy campaigner meme, when all they were doing was refusing to cover his rallies.

Something the GOP finishing schools never do is prepare candidates on how to counteract the MFM setting the narrative and they've gotten away with pulling that crap since 1988. Trump has already shown he's willing to take this on full blast by ridiculing whoever is making the characterizations and refuting them.

And I agree completely with TC, no Dem party tagging of Trump can or will stick. It has been the Quisling #nevertrump morons and the Ryan/McConnell lukewarm piss ants who have done whatever damage has been done.

What Trump should and probably will do is give a speech not admitting when he stopped being a racist, but cataloging Bill and Hill's execrable personal history on race and the Dem's miserable past and present history in whole.

Long time friend who used to live in SV but now in Santa Fe is coming over for dinner. He's a huge lib but a wine snob like me. Just opened a mag of '05 Spottswoode Cab prior to his arrival. Wish I had more JOMers to enjoy it but...

Unfortunately, 99.9999% of the electorate have never visited this blog or no anything resembling the attitude and political intellect of its commentors.

That said, there are big time issues driving the Trump numbers and even though they are reflected here with learned commentary, among the voters they are more simplified. Much like the rationale used to vote Leave in the UK.

So what are they? Are they "Hillary is a liar, witch and untrustworthy?" or are they, Illegal Immigration, Trade, Islamic terrorism, MAGA, religious freedom, the 2nd Amendment, Mexico and China, etc.????

What is going to persuade people to vote for Trump? The issues or being anti-Hillary or both?

Me? I am anti-Hillary. If Trump does nothing in 4 years it is 4 years without Hillary doing something we will regret.

One time I am at dinner in Tallahassee with the head of Thyssen USA and Tom Dewey, Jr. (Dewey, Ballentine) before a meeting on the old High Speed Rail project back in the 90's. The Sommelier brings the wine list (actually a book of immense weight and pages) to me. So I see a nice Flora Springs Cab and suggest that to the table.

Mr. Dewey snatches the book from me, finds a 86 Haut Bailly and reminds me that it is too easy to grow wine in California. You need an ancient terroir to grow great wine. If you are going to pay for a dinner to impress your friends and/or clients make sure they know you are doing the best for them.

It suddendly dawned on me that he expected me to pick up the tab:) Lawyers.

The notion that Trump's biggest problem is that Rodham and friends called him a racist (quelle surprise!) is just ridiculous. Adams is prepackaging his excuse for why his landslide prediction turned out to be wrong.

Trump has all sorts of problems but if he overcomes them and wins it will be all on him. He will, as JiB said, not owe anything to anyone.

But if he loses that is on him too. No one, not George Will, not Paul Ryan, not anyone here, is obligated to vote for him or support him or work for him. If he loses it will be no one's falt but his own. He needs to persuade people to support him and not blame THEM if he fails to do so.

Donald Trump’s campaign aides are lining up a slate of iconic sports figures to appear at the national convention in Cleveland next month—including former undisputed world heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, legendary Chicago Bears coach Mike Ditka, former Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight and NASCAR chief Brian France, people familiar with the planning told Bloomberg Politics.

…

“Mike Tyson endorsed me, I love it,” Trump said in April in Indiana. “You know, all the tough guys endorse me. I like that.”

Following the Indiana rally, Trump was criticized for touting the endorsement of the former boxer who had served three years in prison after being convicted in the state for raping a beauty pageant contestant.
Tyson’s presence would be extra-special in light of Trump’s remarks today:

It's unprecedented for members of the same party to actively dismiss their nominee, Theo. They don't have to work for him, endorse him, or vote for him; but they need to be quiet, or they'll own a huge share of the blame if he loses.

House Benghazi Report Finds No New Evidence of Wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton

According to these two, it should say "no new evidence of rightdoing."

Two Republicans on the House Benghazi Committee have released a supplement to the panel’s final report because they felt that Chairman Trey Gowdy’s effort did not sufficiently criticize the Obama Administration’s handling of the attacks.

Lurker Susie--Now there's a convention people will watch..Heh--I don't think Kasich and Cruz not speaking is going to hurt Trump, do you? He just took Obama's styrofoam Parthenon and raised it up a notch.

So if he goes to court with a winnable case but all his witnesses bug out and act like fools on the stand and undercut his client with horrendous testimony because the client is kinda loud and his hair is funny [even though his cliet's opponent is the most ghastly thing on two trunks] that loss is on Theo, right? Or maybe his client.
Couldn't possibly be on the useless witnesses.

Was feeling a little offish this mornin so I laid down and watched a little TV.
There was an old Maverick on that was a parody of Gunsmoke. Absolutely hilarious.
As I recall there was a Bonanza parody too.

One of Lou Dobb's guests on his special Live Terrorism coverage, a Muslim from Turkey who was in the Turkish Legislature, just called the Terrorists in Turkey "ISIS." He did not use the Kerry/Obama approved term "Daesh."

He must not have gotten the memo:(

I am mighty worried that if a Turkish Muslim calls ISIS "ISIS" instead of calling them "Daesh" this might really make ISIS, ISIL, the Islamic Terrorists Daesh mad.

Plus the stupid SOB Turkish guy even went so far as to say they were Muslims. Ai yi yi!

mondays they have hart to hart which wasn't my favorite, knight rider on tuesdays, then my earliest recollection was the six million dollar man, and I really gulp how young I must have been then, because they didn't repeat shows till some time in the 80s